Meeting with Future Queen

A minute passed, yes, a whole minute where Emily did not let go of Aren who was hugging in front of everyone; the situation was getting uncomfortable even for Glen who was oblivious to the whole situation.

- Hey ... I apologize for worrying you ... and about what you said about being that sworn brother, I would like to know if we will do it now or later ... since I have to do some things ... - said Aren who was trying to change the conversation.

However, that comment worried the son of Count Valladares too much.

Jumping Aren's arms, Emily wiped her tears and, when she opened her eyes, she saw that the young man's shirt was soaked.

- I'm sorry, I got too excited ... your shirt is wet, I'll buy you another one.

- Ah, yes ... don't worry about that ... on the other hand, about what I told you ...

- Yes, we'll go check in today, I'll go get ready. - Emily said in a somewhat tearful, but comforting voice.

A loud voice interrupted.

- What is the meaning of this, Emily, is this man for real! - exclaimed Eduardo.

The young woman who was near the door stopped and turned to answer.

- Ah, yes... I don't think I've introduced them yet. He is Arias Elrod D. Aren, he is my ... 'partner'.

The young woman hesitated a bit on how to refer to the one who had saved her.

- Well, this is Eduardo Luis Valladares Rodriguez, a childhood friend and son of Count Erick Valladares. - Emily spoke more and more cheerful and serene, which contrasted with the somber and depressing aspect of before.

 A moment of silence was maintained when both men saw each other.

- Hello... I'm Aren. - said the young man monotonously.

- How are you? ... I'm Eduardo. - said the other male as well.

Again they were silent.

"Awkward ... this looks like a love triangle ... only ... ... ... I think I'd better go ..." thought Glen as he witnessed it all.

- Well ... I'll be going now. - Aren said, beating Glen to the punch.

- No, I'm the one who's leaving; I apologize for coming unannounced, Miss Beltran ... please think about it, Emily. I will be waiting for you. - Eduardo commented as he picked up his bag and left the place passing by Emily.

The young woman only remained silent with a crestfallen look on her face.

- Yes, yes... go now. - Melissa said grumpily.

Following the man, the two maids said goodbye and left with him as if they had all come together.

- Hey, Aren, can we talk for a moment? - said Glen unexpectedly serious.

Aren nodded and they left without the long-haired young man leaving a message for Emily.

- We need to talk later, there's something I need to know.

The young blonde woman understood and nodded. Seconds after the pair left, a voice was heard.

- While they talk, we also have a pending conversation. - said Melissa.

In front of the Royal Palace of Madrid there was a certain amount of sophisticated vehicles that seemed to adorn the entrance and its surroundings of the magnificent facilities where the royal family resided.

Inside the place you could see the extensive and wide parade ground and, entering through one of the large doors, some people of high socio-political status were gathered.

Among them some rumors could be heard; they were about certain 'visits' which were received by the first princess and future queen of the Spanish nation.

In one of the rooms of the palace near the central courtyard, a group of 8 people were gathered and waiting.

- Was it really good to give her the information before we spoke to her personally? - Thomas asked.

- Yes, do you think they would leave her majesty surrounded by people she barely knows, not to say that she has never seen us? - replied Lirio.

- For security reasons, her vassals will review the contents of the USB copy and the other evidence; if they think it is pertinent they will let Princess Lisbeth know. But what concerns me now is not so much that. - Lorenz explained.

- What are you talking about? - asked Hayato.

- ... I heard when we arrived that the princess has been involved in an accident and, although they don't want to make it public, she seems to have after-effects of what happened.

- Accident? Is she hospitalized or something? - Lois asked.

- No ... she's here ...

No one understood the last thing anyone said.

- Enough, let's not talk about it anymore. - said Victoria.

Everyone thought the warning was about possible hidden security cameras or something like that; however, it wasn't really about that.

Immediately the doors were opened letting in a group of men in suits, one of them looking a little younger than the rest spoke.

- Please follow us. The princess will see you personally. - Bruno said.

- Will she see you?

- She will only let in the representative of the Valdelomar group and the mayoress of Luesia.

- What?

- Don't they represent you? It is more than enough for them to talk to the princess.

Everyone was puzzled, for why had they all been allowed to go to the palace in the first place?

- Unfortunately, we require at least two more people to come with us. - commented Victoria.

- ... Who?

The young woman made a sign referring to Lirio and Alexander.

- ... Okay, there will be four of you; we ask the rest of you to wait in this room. - said Bruno.

No one else objected.

The four of them were led out of the place, passing through the passages of the palace and being seen by some of the members as was that group escorted by the men in suits, they arrived in front of the door of a room.

When the door was knocked and the signal to enter was given, the doors were opened.

Entering they could all observe a group of men in suits on the sides of the walls as if it were a real catwalk and in front of them a large desk where rested one of the arms of a beautiful young woman who was sitting and had a sling on the other arm.

At her sides were two men; one of advanced age and the other was a young blonde with a shrewd appearance and dark circles under his face.

- Welcome everyone, sorry for any trouble the guards may have caused you. On the other hand, there is no need for formal introductions... I already know who you are..." was the first thing the purple-haired woman was heard to say.

 Everyone was somewhat captivated by the elegant appearance of that young woman.

- That will be all, Bruno. Thank you for your efforts, you may leave now.

- I understand. - Bruno said, bidding farewell to everyone, closing the doors and leaving the room.

- Tell him to rest, he just got out of the hospital today. - Lisbeth murmured to the old man on her left side.

- Understood, your highness, but remember not to exert yourself too, since like Bruno he has just left the clinic. - muttered the old man.

A slight smile in assent to the man's advice was seen on the young woman's face.

- Forgive my rudeness, as you may know, I have been contacted by a 'friend' of mine about having an audience with you because of the case of the disappearances in Luesia.

- Yes, your highness. As you may have reviewed in the reports submitted; there may currently be a major problem about to explode in the country. - commented Victoria.

- According to what I have reviewed, it is mentioned that there is a criminal organization that is kidnapping and murdering people with the objective of creating walking dead that will sell them as large scale labor to different manufacturing and industrial companies, isn't it?

Listening to such a summary, the hypothesis supported by that group was certainly not very credible.

- I heard about this case more than two months ago and I made it a point to go there myself a few weeks ago at the request of some acquaintances who were concerned about the matter. Among them was your family, Miss D. Hans.

This dismayed Victoria a little.

- Your majesty, as you may have checked; this hypothesis we have is not unfounded, that map and book we found describe several places and dates, in addition to the number of victims ... surely you could have seen the name 'Le Front' ... - explained Lois.

 A certain interest was seen in Lisbeth's look when she heard such a name.

- We believe that is the name of the criminal organization, also in recent days there was an unjustified attack on the apartment where Mayor Victoria resided ... we believe it was them.

- An attack by them? ... Do you have any evidence? - Lisbeth asked incredulously.

- ... No, your highness ... but it is the most certain thing; on the other hand, based on your interest in having gone to Luesia to find out what was happening, we have been able to find an abandoned orphanage on the outskirts of the city where there were bodies of the victims named in the book we gave you.

- ... Yes, I have received a report about that and it is not something that can be overlooked ... it is certainly a strong evidence, but, this Le Front organization, if true, is mentioned to be operating here in the capital ... don't you think it is a bit far-fetched that the authorities did not know about this? Besides, in Madrid there have been no such cases as the ones that happened in Luesia. - said Lisbeth.

- ... They may be actively operating in Luesia at the moment, but, if we leave it at that, we may hear of more cases in the surrounding territories. - spoke Victoria who now seemed determined to win the debate.

Lisbeth smiled.

- I do not deny the fact that something strange is going on in the country, or at least in Luesia; however, we will need more evidence of someone belonging to such an organization for the authorities to act officially.

Everyone felt hope and concern at the same time.

- I understand from the USB files that they handed over a sort of organizational chart or, rather, job titles and some supposed places of operation of this organization. But, before talking about that, hadn't the authorities in Luesia caught a couple who accused them of being the criminals behind the kidnappings... What was their name? Ah, yes... Alicia Enid and Arias Elrod D. Aren - said Lisbeth while a sheet of paper on the table showed the picture of both young people.

This confession made everyone even more worried.

- For some reason, there seem to be certain anomalies in the records of these two ... on the one hand, the young woman named Alicia has a record where several data seems to be missing ... on the other hand, the record of the man named Aren seems to be falsified ... But what worries me more is that it seems that Miss Lois is someone close to the ex-convict Alicia. On the other hand, I am informed that the head of DIS, Vincent Veramente, has disappeared, hasn't he?

Rather than a potential opportunity to solve the case, it looked like both young women were in a courtroom.

The two young women seemed to be in great straits and unable to say anything that would help them, as the other two young men next to them were also not entirely clean on their record.

- Wait a moment, if what you want is to verify that we are related to the culprits of what is happening in Luesia, you will only waste your time. - said Alexander.

No one waited for him to speak, but one of those next to the princess spoke up.

- Really? It all looks like you were accomplices..." said Marcus with his characteristic smile.

 Throwing a couple of pictures as if they were cards towards where the princess was, the guards reacted as a potential attack.

- Wait! - exclaimed the old man next to the princess.

On the table, they could see the two photographs of the autopsies that were done on the two women who had been found murdered that day Aren was caught and blamed as the criminal.

- What are these? - Marcus asked.

- As you can see, those women were considered victims of the kidnappings, but during the autopsy they found something strange: they both had the same tattoo on their breasts.

In those photos you could see a kind of combination of two letters, L and F, as if they were some kind of symbol.

- Are you saying that they belong to the criminal group because they have those tattoos? - asked Lisbeth.

It was then that Victoria remembered something very important.

- Certainly ... the latest autopsy reports showed that those women were not registered in the identification system of the citizens of Spain. In addition, some analysis was done on other bodies previously found and we discovered that some of the corpses had organic residues that belonged to these two women.

The evidence was overwhelming, because how was it possible that some corpses found on different dates previously shared organic samples of those two deceased women?

- Do you still have those records? - the elderly man asked.

- Yes, we can send them to you today. - replied Victoria.

Lisbeth, Marcus and the elderly man began to look at each other as if they were thinking of a final answer.

- Well, for showing enough evidence to consider your hypothesis of a potential criminal organization that is outraging corpses with totally unethical and immoral purposes, I, Lisbeth Antonia Von Éber, the Princess of Asturias and future Queen of Spain, approve the request to conduct a search for the whereabouts of this organization for which you will be provided with support and a highly qualified exploration team to perform these actions. In case of finding objective and solid evidence on any of the bases of operation of the organization known as Le Front, an immediate and urgent audience will be granted with His Majesty, King Theodore Von Eber.

This statement was just what they wanted, but did not think they could achieve; with the support of the royal family, it would not be difficult to carry out the search for Le Front's bases. However, this celebration on the part of Victoria and Lois was muted by a request.

- I will wait for the autopsy report of these women, but, on the other hand, I would like you to tell me what you know about this young man named Aren. - Lisbeth said with a serious face.

- What? - asked Victoria and Lois simultaneously.

" Aren ... is that guy ... " thought Alexander remembering that time he met him; it was as if a certain fear was felt in his whole being remembering that person.

"Aren? It seems like everyone here knows him, but who is he?" thought Lirio who kept quiet all the time.

Next to the princess, Marcus was smiling.

Inside a room of the Beltran mansion, two young men were sitting across from each other.

- Well, spit it all out, Aren. - Glen said with a straight face.

- About what? - Aren asked, pretending to be ignorant.

- Ah, you think you're clever?

- ...

 Tell me why you went to that devilish place ... the woman who looked like an angel came out of your shadow, didn't she? ... From the beginning I wondered if there was something strange about you, now I'm asking you who or what you are?

- ... Well, I'll tell you ... only if you also tell me how you developed the ability to create a sword out of nothing, Glen.

The two young men seemed to have discovered that they were both hiding things; on the other hand, on the terrace where Melissa and Emily were still standing, a cup fell to the floor and broke.

- What?

- ... Did that answer your question? - answered Emily coldly.

- ... Then you ... should be dead ... - Melissa said slowly as if trying to process the information given by Emily.

- Dead? No ... I would just remain a toy for them.

- ... So that's what happened ... then, Aren, he ...

- Yes ... he saved me.